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Lucas Arden
|-|Young Adult= Summary Lucas Arden (Luke) is the primary protagonist of The Black Pillars. He is the biological child of Amanda and Jordan Clement, and the foster child of Robert and Leigh Arden. Spoilers: A little less than 9 months before Lucas was born, his mother Amanda was enjoying a recreational spelunking expedition with her husband (Lucas was conceived a few days before). She delved deep underground into a new cave system she had discovered on earlier expeditions. During this time she stumbled across an ancient artifact, buried deep underground... a titanic Black Pillar, carved with runes in an unknown language. Touching the Pillar, she received visions of an ancient civilisation brought to ruin by an incredible power, but also accidentally activated the Pillar's power. This resulted in what Phantasms would later call the Awakening - the moment that the laws governing reality began to bend, and the Everworld and the Neverworld began to collide. With the aid of her husband, she managed to escape the caves as nightmarish creatures pushed through the fraying boundaries between worlds. But unbeknownst to her, touching the Pillar had also caused changes to the zygote within her. Although they had escaped the caves, and managed to return to their normal lives, Amanda's sanity began slipping as a result of what she had seen in her visions, as well as the knowledge that she was responsible for the deaths of those killed in the Shifts that were now occurring around the globe. When Lucas was just a four year old child, his father left his mother and him, driven over the edge by the pressure of trying to care for his wife who's sanity was slipping and also believing that Lucas was not his child, that Amanda had cheated on him. Only a few days later, Lucas demonstrated super strength, easily lifting a fridge that his mother was trying to move. This was the last straw. Amanda, her mind frayed to pieces, tried to kill Lucas, believing that he was some kind of anti-christ the devil put in her. The young Lucas managed to escape her by jumping out the window and telling the police. His mother was taken away to a mental hospital, and he was placed in foster care. Two years later, he was adopted by the Arden family who wanted a sibling for their new daughter Lily and raised as their son. He adjusted well, but was a quiet boy. For a long time he was extremely careful in his actions when meeting new people, watching and carefully tailoring his responses to what they seemed to like, always hesitant to do anything that would cause his new family and the friends he made to reject him. He was an fairly normal boy in all areas. He scored relatively high in his school grades, had a small circle of close friends, and was average in his sporting abilities despite his superhuman strength and speed. The reason for this was simple: Lucas had been heavily affected by his mother's attempted murder of him, as well as his experiences in foster care where his great physical abilities had ostracized him from others. And so he resolved to restrain himself, always holding back to the "normal" level so as not to drive away the people from whom he most sought acceptance. And so he continued through his school life, acting normal in all ways. Until a few days before his 16th birthday, when he was caught in a shift while out helping Lily look for a present for him. With Lily kidnapped by horrifying creatures, and Lucas trapped within the Neverworld, he is forced to let go of his restraint to survive and find her. Personality On the surface, Lucas is a normal, well-adjusted teenage boy. He is a member of a social circle of friends, is generally polite, enjoys a good laugh with friends, etc. In all ways he seems like a normal boy. Lucas can be very brave and heroic at times, rushing into danger without thinking of his own safety in order to help those he values. He is willing to go above and beyond the call of duty to help his friends and family. In some circumstances, he is even willing to risk his life for others. However... Despite being taken in by a family, and being extremely grateful to them for doing so after being stuck in a foster home for a year, Lucas has never really gotten over the whole "my mum went insane and tried to kill me" thing. Despite being a generally nice person, Lucas can be said to be quite selfish. He is not an altruistic person. While it is true he will do nice things for people, seemingly for no personal gain, in truth he is doing it so they will accept him and so he will gain love (not just romantic love, also familial and friendship). Lucas is subconsciously desperate for validation in the form of love/acceptance, a result of the trauma of his birth father leaving him, and his birth mother rejecting him and trying to kill him. A large element in how much Lucas values someone is how much validation through love (again, all forms, not just romantic) they can give him. However, it should be noted that this is not a conscious thought - if the lives of two people were placed on a scale, he would not think to himself "which person can give me more love" - however, how much love they can give him plays a large portion in determining the strength of his feelings towards them. Lucas is also more willing to do things that are risky to himself and others in order to gain acceptance and love from those around to him classmates, neighbours and family. Another trait of Luke's is being self-centred, a result of him being fairly arrogant. He doesn't precisely consider himself above anyone else, but to him, the feelings of people he does not value simply don't exist, never taking them into consideration or thinking that he should. A normal person might at least feel sadness or a desire to help (even if they never actually do anything, they might feel they want to) at a video of starving children in Africa - but to Luke, he could not care less. Those starving children are not people around him who can give him the love and acceptance his mother did not - therefore they are meaningless. During the Shift at the start of the first book, he was willing to push over and trample random people in the crowd to escape, as to him they did not matter. What mattered was getting his foster sister to safety, even at the cost of slowing down his own escape. Which is also something interesting about his mindset. Lucas was willing to risk his own chances at escaping (and thus his life) in order to save his sister. So he isn't selfish to the point of abandoning someone else to die. However, this is another manifestation of his desperation for love. The subconscious thought of how grateful she would be and of how grateful his foster parents would be if he saved her, and of their sorrow at his death (which is itself another form of acceptance and love), all motivated his actions in that situation (albeit unconsciously). Essentially, he wants love, he doesn't mind if he won't be alive when it's given to him. The inability to empathize with those he doesn't consider important, combined with his need for acceptance from others means that Luke would be willing to sacrifice the nameless masses for the good of a single person he cares about. In a serious fight, Luke's actions/tactics are generally determined by the law, and how much he values the person. In all situations, Luke cares about not doing something that would get him in trouble with the law, but only if it would get him in trouble (e.g. if he could get away with it, he'll do it), and even then, only if it would make his family/friends stop liking him (e.g. even if he would get in trouble with the law for it, if his family/friends would still support him, he'll do it). The other aspect that contributes to the actions he'll take is how much he values the person. Against a nameless stranger (e.g. a random mugger), Luke will do whatever it takes to win. He won't outright intend to kill or permanently hurt the person, but if an action that results in him winning would also result in the person being injured or dying, he'll do it (as long as it doesn't get him in trouble with the law). Against a "friend of a friend" who he doesn't really know, but a friend does know, he will generally hold back more, so as not to injure the person and potentially result in his friend disliking him. Against someone he really does value, he's probably not going to fight back at all, only try to preserve his own life. In that last case though, do note that a large contributer to how much Luke values someone is how much love/acceptance they can give him, and if they are seriously fighting and trying to hurt/kill him, that probably means they don't love/accept him any more, and his value of them is going to be decreasing pretty fast. All of this sounds like he's not the greatest fellow, which is true enough, but he is generally nice and is willing to stick his neck out for people he values. Eventually his friends separate from him. This second significant rejection and loss in his life is an important factor in him realizing how controlling he was becoming, and starting to become a better person for it. Personal Statistics Alignment: Unclear Name: Lucas (Luke) Arden, Pro (his nickname) Origin: The Black Pillars Gender: Male Nationality: Mexican by birth, raised in America by a foster family Age: 16 at the end of Book 1 Classification: Unknown as of the end of Book 1 Date of Birth: Undetermined * Zodiac/Horoscope: Undetermined Birthplace: Mexico Weight: Unknown Height: Unknown Likes: Playing music (it's something that requires skill rather than raw physical ability, so it poses a challenge to him) Dislikes: Most sports (for the most part, sports are too easy for him due to his incredible physical ability. He needs to hold back when playing to not bring down all this unwanted attention on himself by beating every Olympic record easily, and he doesn't like to hold back) Eye Color: Gold (he wears contact lenses to make them look normal) Hair Color: Black Hobbies: Playing the guitar and piano. Values: The acceptance of others. Martial Status: Single Status: Alive Affiliation: None Previous Affiliation: None Themes: Combat Statistics Tier: 9-A Powers and Abilities: 'Superhuman Physical Characteristics, Regeneration (Low-Mid, quickly healed from lethal blood loss, a hole in his stomach, a compound fractured rib, and numerous lacerations on his back and limbs upon activating his power), Arrogance Power (the more arrogance Lucas feels, the more he can tap into his body's innate Hallow strength), Enhanced Senses (all his senses are heightened), Extrasensory Perception (can sense the 'flow' of the world around him if he concentrates, allowing him to detect beings, energies and phenomena beyond the physical senses. Detected the emotions of Nightgaunts), can damage conceptual beings/living stories and bypass certain forms of Non-corporeality (is capable of harming Phantasms with his bare hands), Resistance to Spatial Manipulation (Nearly unaffected by a spatial distortion. Survived the collapse of a Shift, which involves “the world shattering” while within it), Poison Manipulation (his body purged vampiric poison from his bloodstream), Disease Manipulation (stated to have never gotten sick in his life), Plot Manipulation (was able to resist the "story pressure" of the Nightgaunts and other Phantasms forcing him to conform to their desired series of events), Mind Manipulation (resisted the Dark Man's mind control) and psuedo-Resistance to Absorption (a vampire that drank some of his blood died almost a second later) 'Attack Potency: Small Building level (his body is far superior to any normal human. Hit Isaak Morvant into a concrete wall with enough force to cause a large crater), higher when feeling arrogance (the more arrogance Lucas feels, the more he can tap into his body's natural power) Speed: '''Superhuman (stated he could outrun a car if he really tried), higher when feeling arrogance''' Lifting Strength: Superhuman (far stronger than any human, even peak athletes), higher when feeling arrogant Striking Strength: Wall level, higher when feeling arrogant Durability: Small Building level (survived being thrown through a concrete pillar by the Dark Man, albeit with major bruises and cracked bones), higher when feeling arrogance Stamina: Extremely high (Lucas stated that he had never once in his life felt out of breath, even after running cross countries and sprints for school) Range: Normal melee range with attacks, tens of metres with telekinesis (was able to affect Lily from across a large city street) Standard Equipment: None notable Intelligence: Above average. Gets decently high marks in class. Weaknesses: Can't use his telekinesis except subconsciously / when being extremely single-minded, due to the mental blocks created by the trauma of his mother trying to kill him when he showed her his telekinesis. Key: Only what appears in the first book. Notable Powers and Abilities: Unnatural Body: Lucas's body is, for an unknown reason, supernatural strong, fast, and resilient. He is strong enough to overpower a supernaturally strong vampire with his bare hands and hit it hard enough to send it flying and cause a small crater in concrete upon impact. He states that he is able to outrun a car if he really tried. He is durable enough to be slammed straight through a concrete pillar hard enough to shatter it and only break a bones. His resilience doesn't only extend to physical durability though, as he was able to resist and push through space freezing around him, as well as not be torn apart by space cracking apart inside a Rift's collapse. He was able to resist the "pressure" of a Phantasm trying to force him to conform to the story of being grabbed, and his body purged itself of a vampire's poison. Furthermore, he heals at a much faster rate than any normal human, healing from the deep cuts he gained during the Shift by the time he woke up, and having almost fully healed all his broken bones only a few minutes after they broke. When his body is healing, light like a white flame shines from the wounds, similar to Avalon's regeneration. Other Notable Victories: Notable Losses: Inconclusive Matches: Category:Tier 9 Category:Statistics Amplification Users Category:Regeneration Users Category:Space Users Category:Portal Users Category:Extrasensory Perception Users Category:Enhanced Senses Users Category:Teenagers Category:Black Pillar Characters